today in our tb age of technology has brought about innovation as some never imagined possible while the industry evolves the laws that regulate it and the government's access to remain antiquated but that could all change very soon the latest on the photo and then the electronic communications privacy act straight ahead. plus it's day three of the pretrial hearings for the alleged wiki leaks or bradley manning the private first class took the stand today to testify about his treatment while in detention the details coming up. and drill baby drill not something you would expect from a democrat but that's exactly the message president obama is sending to oil companies and the gulf coast and how it will tell you about the newest drilling

plots the obama administration leased out and legal codes. it's thursday november twenty ninth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r.t. . well the government can come and search your home without a warrant so should the same rules apply to searching your e-mails and cell phones but that's a question congress is looking at today the senate judiciary committee has voted on making changes to the electronic communications privacy act the law passed in one thousand nine hundred six regulates how the government can monitor digital communications but these days american lives have drastically expanded in the cyber and digital world this is raising questions as to how far authorities can go in searching the vast amounts of information stored in cyberspace well the proposed amendment would require police to get

a warrant if they want to sift through your personal online or cell phone information for the latest on this bill on capitol hill i was joined just a short time ago by r.t. white house correspondent christine. well the latest that the bill has passed out of the senate judiciary committee as of this morning this is in the eyes of a whole lot of people here the first major hurdle of course the bill has yet to face the full senate and the house but as of now what this says is that as you mention police and other federal agencies must obtain a warrant and able to in order to have access to any individual's electronic communications we're talking about stuff that's stored in your g. mail google docs and facebook and twitter before the law is much different and it's really crazy to think that we have gone this long that the last version of this bill was as you said back in one nine hundred eighty six it's twenty twelve now and they have finally done this and something important that i should mention is that

as of just a few days ago there was some different language in the bill that made it so that twenty two agencies federal agencies like the federal communications commission the securities and exchange commission would have been able to obtain information simply by saying it was necessary to an investigation they would have been able to do this without a warrant valve language has now been removed privacy rights advocates people with the american civil liberties union a lot of libertarian organizations even grover norquist whose name we've been hearing quite a lot the president of americans for tax reform all of these sort of different fashions of come together and they've said you know what this is a good thing that the government should not be able to do this without giving permission just one other aspect of the bill i want to mention is that if they do obtain a warrant language in the bill says that unless there's a threat to homeland security that they have to let the person know they have to let you know if they in fact get a warrant to get your electronic communication so really

a victory in the eyes of quite a few privacy rights advocates now the president on the senate judiciary committee patrick leahy democrat from vermont he's been around for. quite a long time now when you when the when this first bill was passed i spoke to his office a little while ago he says this is a huge victory this is much needed progress he spoke on camera just a little while ago. three decades out in act what effect problem merican face even greater threat to the digital privacy witness explosion new technology and the expansion of the government's surveillance powers. and i might say those powers. not just in the federal government but state governments. well currently and until this bill becomes law it would it was very easy for agencies to get access to anything that's been stored on a third

a sort of or third party server for more than one hundred eighty days so that's about six months if you've kept something as we do live as most of us do often keep the e-mails and private communications because as we know we have so much storage so this was so much easier to be able to get what they would call an administrative subpoena and they'd simply have to say this information it could be useful to an investigation well that is no longer if this bill does end up passing they will have to obtain a warrant well chris it sounds like there is a lot at stake here especially since a lot of us conduct a lot of our lives online what kind of concerns that does this raise in terms of our americans fourth amendment rights. well i mean quite a few and it's very simple i mean the bottom line is for so many people in so many different federal agencies to simply be able to say you know this could be helpful or useful in an investigation. that could be anyone can be you that could be me

that could be anyone and it has been that way for years now i'm sure you know people involved in the general petraeus scandal would have preferred that this legislation would have already been passed it's really crazy to think i mean think back to one thousand nine hundred six was a lot of our viewers first of all weren't even born then crocodile dundee and top gun where the top two movies of that year and nobody knew anyone other than people deep into government or the i.q. world who even knew what the internet was information stored electronically for more than one hundred eighty days back then was unheard of and mostly it would seem to be forgotten about today you know i can find e-mails from years and years ago in one of my email addresses so it it's just. a needed piece of legislation and it's just crazy to think it's taken this long while christina you mentioned those movies that really does put it into perspective that time certainly have to change. the

way i think it's pretty clear that this law as it stands the e.c.p.a. has become pretty outdated. well it has and we should really hammer home that has just passed the first hurdle it has just gotten out of committee today and it got out of committee with the removal of that language that would have made it much easier for some of these federal agencies to have access to electronic communication without a warrant again privacy rights advocates celebrating that but the bottom line is yes it is totally outdated and this isn't the only thing was there are so many other things with our everyday use of the internet with you know and certainly at r.t. we talk a lot about cyber security but this is the first step and the senate has taken and they've done so in a way that those concerned about individual privacy are happy with they say that we're moving in the right direction but you know the full senate is not expected to vote on this probably until the new session so again just

a first step by today's action ok and lastly if it does indeed passages to look like they don't have the backing of the white house. well it's really interesting because there are some people within the justice department even that say yeah this may be great for privacy advocates but this is anti law enforcement this is anti you know tough on crime a lot of people that wanted tougher restrictions and wanted to be easier to get access to electronic communication say this is needed for law enforcement so so again we do think and it's looking like that despite the language that it passed with today out of committee that there could be some amendments added on to it to make it. you know easier once again as we know things work here in washington on capitol hill there's a lot of back and forth a lot of removing amendments and adding amendments and changing the wording so again it's a small step forward for those in favor of privacy but it has

a long way to go before it does become law so again even people within the white house within the justice department do want to see some some changes that make it a little easier for some long foresman agencies right christine thanks for staying on top of this very important piece of legislation that was the white house correspondent christine for that and now an update to a case we have been following closely for some time and that is the case of bradley manning a military judge has accepted the terms of manning's plea which was submitted earlier this month where he would plead guilty to charges of sending classified materials to wiki leaks now the judge has not formally accepted the police but has approved the language of the offenses manning what it meant to those charges would carry a maximum prison term of over sixteen years earlier today the private first class took the stand for the first time at his pretrial hearing in fort meade appear

nervous manning answered questions about his arrest in baghdad in two thousand and ten and the ensuing treatment he received while in detention and while in court lawyers for that if. drew up a life sized outline of his cell at camp kuwait manning reportedly walked around the outline describing different aspects of his cell while donning a bulky suicide smock conoco cell that manning called home for nine months measured little more than six by eight feet he says it was here where he was subject to force sleep deprivation and forced nudity. well manning's defense team argues that the charges against the army private should be dropped completely they say he was punished enough while being detained in quantico now it's unclear whether prosecutors will continue to pursue the other counts the most serious of which is aiding the enemy if convicted of that charge manning could be looking at life behind bars we'll keep you posted on the latest on this case as it develops.

well the u.s. government has auctioned off plots of drilling rights to the highest bidder but the e.p.a. did bar one company from the auction british petroleum the company responsible for the deepwater horizon accident and two thousand and ten killing eleven employees and spilling up to four point nine million barrels of oil into the gulf of mexico although oil companies made off better at the auction chevron with the single highest bid of seventeen point two million dollars won the right to drill in the western gulf of mexico about one hundred forty miles south of galveston texas although chevron got the top prize conoco phillips will also pay fifty one point eight million dollars for sixty two tracks in the gulf and if you look at the top two institutional investors for both companies you'll see some interesting similarities the. state street corporation and vanguard both holding companies own

the most corporate shares of the two the top thirteen oil companies submitted nearly one hundred fifty eight million dollars in bids the auction kicks off the obama administration's new five year plan for leasing the continental shelf all part of the goal to make the u.s. energy independent by the year two thousand and twenty but if all the drilling is done by oil companies including those like b.p. which are owned overseas is this really an energy independence and looks like the u.s. is on track to become the world's largest oil producer by the year two thousand and fifteen so what i asked chris williams he is the professor of physics and chemistry at pace university i asked him if that is the same thing as being energy independence. one would question whether one even wants to carry on producing oil actually. the last year there are more drilling leases handed out last year into a twenty eleven than there were in two thousand and seven under george w. bush so it's not too surprising that obama would carry on handing out the leases

and citibank did say that in the report that you mentioned that to quote the u.s. could be the new middle east by twenty twenty and outpace the output of saudi arabia which is kind of quite phenomenal but what it really means is more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and more the risk of further spills such as we saw in two thousand and ten with b.p. because not only are they drilling off the shore deeper and deeper in the gulf but they're also wanting to drill for the first one offshore in the arctic two in that kind of pristine very fragile environment so many other reports most recently by the wolf bank say that we are headed towards a catastrophic level of global warming four degrees annually so you will degrees by the next fifty years or so and so primarily that's from burning fossil fuels so i

would question the logic of. burning more fuel in the first place let alone the question of when you when you think about how rich the united states is in terms of solar and wind power why don't we developing those as opposed to pouring more billions of dollars into oil companies which are the most profitable organizations pretty much on the planet now energy independence this is something that administrations for a long time have been working towards and kind of seems to be the ideal i mean especially with the turmoil that we're seeing in the middle east and the fluctuation of oil prices. wouldn't that be the goal for the u.s. to be energy independence or are there drawbacks to that. well i think it matters why you decide how you're deciding your mix of fuels if we're still relying on fossil fuels i don't see the united states pulling out of its bases in the middle east and having. soldiers in iraq for example i mean it's impossible to explain

iraq without talking about oil for starters so energy independence i'm all for. the the idea of energy independence but not if it's based on more of the same fossil fuels because the reality is part of the reason that the united states is able to produce more oil is because it's drilling in places that it never used to drill before it's also fracking for natural gas which means that natural gas is decreased so coal can be exported and coal is being exported in large quantities to places like china for example which is now ramping up its all component coal production which is adding to c o two emissions and then the u.s. turns around and says well look john is not doing anything about carbon dioxide emissions the burning the burning more more coal but it's actually u.s. coal burning so i don't see scouring the earth for more and more oil which is not a renewable resource is any kind of future for the planet i mean if we weren't

wanted to be really energy independent why don't we rely on the sun and the wind and some mix of alternatives as opposed to pouring more billions of dollars into into a technology that we know is threatening the whole biosphere and as a lot of debate over whether wind and solar is efficient and feasible and affordable a lot of people say that drilling is the way to go if we do want to become energy independent i do want to ask you chris because some people are impressed that the e.p.a. is now punishing b.p. for deepwater horizon but some financial analysts doubt that the london based companies suspension from the u.s. for. all government contrasts to contracts will last i want to read this quote it's from wells fargo estates we would be surprised if this is spent and lasted beyond a few weeks or months leaving no discernible effect on b.p.'s drilling or

development pipeline that's according to wiles fargo analysts so what do you think rasul the e.p.a. stand firm on this one i very much doubt it if you look back at what happened with the exxon valdez spill it didn't take long for exxon to be back in the game and the fines that they paid ended up being quite minimal a lot of people have been talking about this story level of fines to to b.p. at four off billion dollars so far and yet they made. forty five billion dollars since that time in the nine quarters since that spill so the fine so far represents ten percent of b.p.'s profits which is hardly likely to deter them from asking for more permits and they are the major company in the arctic for example drilling up there and have been for many years so i would concur with that with the conclusion that you just read out so i would start looking for new it's for b.p.

to be drilling in the gulf within the next few months for sure all right b.p. like other companies oil companies our own international our multinational companies so if it is b.p. and these other companies that are drilling what it really make us energy and independent. even if it's foreign owned oil companies the doing the drilling yes exactly. i mean i think that. potentially if you say that energy independence means you're extracting the fuel from your own country or from your own nation somewhere owned it offshore then if you define energy independence that way then yes but if it's a foreign company that's doing it then you could question whether that really is independence. but b.p. is as multinational as exxon as conoco phillips you as you pointed out two of the major oil companies have the same actually

a major sponsors in terms of the shareholders so it's true that the u.s. is on course for massive expansion of its ability to drill for oil and its own domestic production whether that will lead to less international strife and war over natural resources such as oil i think is highly disputable and open to a lot of debate. really interesting i guess the debate is going to continue preservation you coming on the show that was chris williams a professor of physics and chemistry at pace university. and now to the skies of yemen which have become increasingly filled with united states drones but those unmanned aircraft are built to be joined by planes with pilots all of all of them financed by the u.s. that's right according to wired magazine the navy requested twenty five small planes for surveillance missions and yemen these aircraft resembles cessna's which

are also used for crop dusting and other short distance flights of the new gift from uncle sam ought to arrive within two years and is designed to help yemenis learn how to conduct their own surveillance so who will be targeted all signs point to the al qaeda branch in the arabian peninsula which has found a stronghold in yemen more than two hundred yemenis have been killed by drone strikes so far in two thousand and twelve there are allegedly al-qaeda militants though human rights groups and journalistic outlets like the long war journal contend that many of the dead are actually civilians who have been mistakenly targeted so will the guest of the small planes maybe and of drones in the yemenis skies or just more air traffic will keep you posted. an update now to a case we have been following closely for some time and that is the case of bradley manning a military judge has accepted the terms of manning's plea which was submitted

earlier this month where he would plead guilty to some charges of sending classified materials to wiki leaks well the judge has not formally accepted the plea but has merely approved the language of the offenses manning would admit to those charges that would carry a maximum prison term of sixteen years but just moments ago the private first class took the stand for the first time in his pretrial hearing important need appearing nervous manning answered questions about his arrest in baghdad in two thousand and ten and the ensuing treatment he received while in detention while in court lawyers for the defense drew up a life size outline of his cell in quantico manning reportedly walked around the outline describing different aspects of his cell while donning a bulky suicide smock he was made to wear running defense team argues that charges against the army private should be dropped completely they say he was punished enough while detained in quantico they allege harsh and torture is

conditions while he was locked up in solitary confinement including for sleep deprivation and forced nudity it's unclear whether prosecutors will continue to pursue the other counts the most serious of which is aiding the enemy if convicted of that charge manning could be looking at life behind bars we'll keep you posted on the latest on this case as it develops. well still ahead here on our t.v. from the war on drugs to the war in musician singing about cartels to states in mexico have banned all pro drug cartel music is this suppression of free speech will tell you about the day the music died.

i'm. just saying.

if you just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old i just tell the truth. i'm a confession i'm a total get a i love ratman hip hop is back and pretty sure. it was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the role that algeciras played. look. america's drug war has fueled a wave of killing and mexico it has also led to a musical movement which graphically describes the exploits of drug kingpins excuse

me. destined to become the new rap music here in the u.s. but it's banned in many parts of mexico these are the states where the music is off limits so in a low and chihuahua make up the so-called golden triangle a drug trafficking hotspot artie's or mongol endo shows us how censorship of these drug songs affects the u.s. . with the sounds of toothless and accordions larry these old style commuters are not singing of romance and love instead the crowd in los angeles is cheering for the music which talks about drug smuggling and shooting their rivals did. i say equivalent to well run is a business but it is banished and the promoters of these mexican drug ballads hope to be even bigger than hip hop in the u.s.

many of these drug ballads are recorded in los angeles but banned in the mexican states of chihuahua once in the lower the violent and gritty lyrics are attracting huge crowds in benny's across the u.s. as they promote and celebrate the lives of mexico's most wanted drug lords. but it's really the truth there are most of them are there we have bad guys they're really good guys helping out their cities and their wherever they are from. more than fifty thousand people have been killed in mexico's drug war the last five years the country has militarized many of its urban centers and at a cost of more than one billion dollars to the u.s. taxpayer it is this government crackdown which has given mexico's drug outlaws a roic image that's always something exciting and particularly exciting for people in the lower because you know people both but i see we're fighting back and we're brave and we're standing up now as police and finally came out this put on us

a scene out of. here in los angeles we're back said they're not above forty those concerts that shows like this are actually illegal in parts of mexico but that edgy drug war lyrics are a big hit for us the u.s. . say the true. people seem to like him killed. mexico's censorship of the music has only increased its popularity in the us which is in the middle of the prescription drug addiction epidemic that a lot of addicts really become desperate cannot afford oxycontin go to have much of the heroin consumed in the u.s. it's most didn't do mexico anti drug activist alec stating feels glamorizing the narco culture will only hurt younger generation it's more glamorous to be

a dope dealer and a criminal and a murderer because lawyers and doctors they're not cool the imagery in this drug music is not new to us audiences which have historically bought into the picture here by. the song make it seem exciting young guys think of that world thank you we. are. even a hollywood has tried to cash in on the narco culture. and as this music becomes more mainstream and the drug war continues to rage. it's likely the north of music sound will be singing. the speakers of us he's a call. to the ceiling. in los angeles ramon good window r t. well coming up next on our team is breaking the sat

that's coming up in thirty minutes. being you just got back from a day i was coming from a day we spent five days working side by side with former u.s. president jimmy carter with habitat for humanity building houses in haiti is an incredible life changing experience we're going to talk about all that and more next we're going to feature a couple questions i got to ask him exclusively at a press conference that he had. for that we're also to talk about the the reason is that palestine just got granted statehood by the un this is monumental now they can join the international criminal court potentially charge israel with war crimes we're also be talking to william blum the man who wrote a book that bin ladin actually endorsed in two thousand and six saying this is why there's so much anti-american sentiment in the region so stay tuned for all that and more were to have a nice to see you back here safe and sound that is going to wrap it up for now but for more on the stories we cover to check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash our team america our website our t. done.